


all the tales the same, told before and told again

by sincerelysamedt



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: Falling In Love, M/M, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Pining, Unresolved Romantic Tension, post-reunion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-22
Updated: 2020-05-22
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:55:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24316147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sincerelysamedt/pseuds/sincerelysamedt
Summary: It's a fascinating thing, watching people fall in love with Gon.
Relationships: Gon Freecs/Killua Zoldyck
Comments: 31
Kudos: 346





	all the tales the same, told before and told again

**Author's Note:**

> The title comes from "Sunlight" by Hozier.

It's a fascinating thing, watching people fall in love with Gon.

Old ladies on street corners, little children playing by fountains in parks, shopkeepers insisting on sneaking him an extra cut of meat or two more buns than he had paid for.

"No, I couldn't accept this!"

"Please take it, it's fine! We have plenty." The florist gestures with a grand swoop of her hand.

The flower shop's selection is… a lot, for such a little village like this. Large blooms studded with buds like stars, in colors Killua didn't even know flowers could be; dangling from vines off the high-rise ceiling, climbing iron trellises, and napping in ornate pots atop marble counters.

"Still! Let me pay for them, please!"

"A few lilies tied with some twine is nothing, dear." She laughs and the flowers sway to her voice.

 _I don't think those are just 'a few',_ Killua eyes the _bouquet_ laid on Gon's share of their package. White calla lilies almost obscenely pristine, each one as big as a head of cabbage. The entire dozen is kept together by thin hemp rope and blue looped silk.

It's gorgeous and not part of the order they were sent to pick up.

"Take it, please." The florist says both insistently and pleadingly. Their eyes meet. The look is familiar.

Before Gon, stupid oblivious heartbreaking Gon, could protest any more and further delay their delivery, Killua grabs him by the collar of his dark green hunting jacket.

"Thank you, Miss!" He calls out as he pulls a big struggling idiot out the door.

Watching people fall in love with Gon is an absolutely fascinating thing.

* * *

"That lady was nice but she shouldn't just give away her shop's flowers like that." Gon says while cradling the bouquet. There are a few lilacs among the lilies now, a service tip from the couple whose wedding flowers they delivered. They match the ribbons perfectly.

"She wanted you to have it." Killua raises his arms behind his head. The florist had that look, the same one young village girls had whenever Gon offered to carry their shopping. _Want_ is an understatement - _begging_ is a more fitting word.

"She wouldn't have let you refuse." He closes his eyes. No one before her has and no one after her will.

"Isn't that bad for her business?" He feels more than sees Gon looking at him.

"I just don't understand why people would just do that." Gon continues when Killua doesn't respond. "If it was for someone hungry or sad, I'd get that, but I don't understand why anyone would just _give_ things to me like this."

He's terrible, Killua decides as if it's anything new, undeniably terrible. Gon's genuine, sincere confusion makes him even more awful than he could be if he was just faking it.

"You make people fall in love with you."

He stops in the middle of the empty unpaved road and opens his eyes. As certain as anything, Gon is looking at him, with the bouquet in his hands dwarfing the flowers. His fingers alone look longer than their stems.

"You make people fall in love with you. That's why they give you things."

Things like beaded bracelets, and a glass of ice water on a hot day, one more chicken thigh at the market, a cookie to go with his meal, an undying loyalty pledged as children running in a dark crowded tunnel with no end in sight.

Killua smiles.

And yes, flowers, too.

Gon keeps looking at him with wide familiar eyes, lit by the sunset. It's getting late. They should return to the inn soon and get some rest before taking another job. Maybe in the next town over, maybe in the next continent. Anywhere Gon wants to go. They'll draw a map up.

Something quick and _un_ familiar passes through those eyes.

"I don't believe that."

Killua blinks. "Huh?"

Gon nods once, as if settling an important argument in his own mind. "I don't believe that."

An argument Killua is very clearly not privy to.

"You don't believe _what_ , exactly?"

There it is again. That quick, unfamiliar thing, rearing its head before plunging down deeper than Killua could ever hope to reach.

"I don't believe I make people fall in love with me." Gon says with a conviction that sounds like _we'll do this together_ and _I'll see you again_ and _I will find you._

 _Gods above, he is_ **_terrible._ ** An utter terror of a boy at twelve, at fourteen, and at seventeen. Killua laughs.

"Just… _why?"_ He manages through wild, hysterical hiccups of laughter. Still terrible and still a _riot_. His heart leaps in time.

"Because the person I love doesn't love me back."

His leaping heart crashes to a stop.

"What?"

Stupid Gon, oblivious Gon, heartbreaking, hearttearing, horrible terror of a boy Gon says it again.

"Because the person I love doesn't love me back."

 _Who,_ the word clumps in Killua's throat, _who who who whowhowhowhowho-_

"So what Killua said can't be true."

He's so caught up in _when_ because watching people fall in love with Gon means watching _Gon,_ and since people _always_ fall for Gon, that means _always_ watching this boy who is more son of sunlight than son of hunter so _when did you fall for someone else and how did I not realize I was already watching you do it-_

A terrible sun-child invades his space, forehead to forehead with flowers in his arms. The tip of Gon's nose traces the bridge of Killua's.

Wide familiar sunset-lit eyes stare at him, into him, that quick, _un_ familiar, terrifying thing inching closer to the surface with a threat that feels like dragging him down, under, _where?_

Then it disappears. Gon steps away.

"See." Gon sighs, a heavy thing that would weigh down dandelion seeds.

_See what?_

"Killua is usually right about a lot of things." Gon continues, plucking a lilac in the gentlest purple he had ever seen out of the bouquet.

He reaches over and Killua tries not to flinch when Gon tucks the flower not quite behind his ear but definitely tangled in his hair.

"But Killua is not right about this."

His face feels so hot it's gone numb.

Gon grins, flowers and sunshine and familiar unfamiliarity lurking somewhere Killua won't find today. "We should head back. You choose the next place."

Gons walks on ahead of him. Killua doesn't mind, as he reaches carefully for the lilac in his hair, making sure it doesn't fall off.

Watching people fall in love with Gon might be interesting, _fascinating_. But there are a rare few things that are as _exhilarating_ as _being_ in love with Gon.

**Author's Note:**

> (There may be one thing, though. Being loved by him.)


End file.
